Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

On 29 August 2025 the Pinggu District (Beijing) Science, Technology and Economic Informatization Bureau issued "Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of High-End Manufacturing in Pinggu District" (平谷区促进高端制造业高质量发展若干措施), published to the district government portal on 25 September 2025 with a two-year validity period. The scheme offers manufacturers registered and operating in Pinggu a stack of output-growth, R&D, smart-factory, green-transformation, pharma/medical- device, auto-parts-supply-chain, and synthetic-biology subsidies, with per-recipient caps ranging from RMB 200,000 up to RMB 10 million for qualifying pharmaceutical/medical-device innovators.

BIS amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to implement the decision adopted at the Australia Group (AG) Virtual Implementation Meeting of May 2021, creating new ECCN 2D352 to control software designed for nucleic acid assemblers and synthesizers (ECCN 2B352.j) that is capable of designing and building functional genetic elements from digital sequence data. The rule also amends ECCN 2E001 to capture technology for the development of 2D352-controlled software. Exports to most non-allied destinations require a BIS licence under CB Column 2 and AT Column 1, and the classification of 2D352 software as a critical technology triggers mandatory CFIUS filing requirements for qualifying foreign investment.

The National Security and Investment Act 2021 (c.25), receiving Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and entering full force on 4 January 2022, created the UK's first standalone investment-screening regime, separating national-security review from the Competition and Markets Authority merger-control process. The Act empowers the Secretary of State to call in any acquisition of "control or influence" over a qualifying entity or asset on national-security grounds, and designates 17 sensitive sectors in which acquisitions crossing 25%/50%/75% share-or-voting-rights thresholds (or material influence) require mandatory pre-completion notification to the Investment Security Unit (Cabinet Office); completion before clearance is void and criminal sanctions of up to 5 years imprisonment apply to non-notifying parties. The Act is the structural peer of US CFIUS/FIRRMA (2018), EU Regulation 2019/452, Germany AWG §§55–62, France Décret 2014-479, Netherlands Wet Vifo, and the broader allied FDI-screening parent-statute lattice, and the enabling statute under which all UK mandatory-notification schedule amendments operate.